Perhaps the most common toy of children is the doll. Dolls have represented a virtually endless variety of real and imaginary animals, characters and people, bringing to life the dreams of children. It is not surprising, then, that children often like best dolls that bring to life fantasy or story book characters, such as Cinderella, Superman and others, which allow creation of their own story involving a favorite hero or heroine.
A number of characters portrayed by dolls are transformed between two, and sometimes more, personalities or likenesses in their story-book or fantasy lives. For example, Cinderella's rag clothes are instantly transformed into a beautiful gown by her fairy Godmother. Many other examples can be given, such as the evil queen who disguised herself as an old woman in order to trick Snow White and the Little Mermaid who was transformed into a princess by the wicked Sea Witch.
Unfortunately, dolls previously available have not been capable of recreating such transformations made by the characters they represent. Typically, dolls require a complete change of costume, a task very much unlike the magical change often undergone in the character's fantasy story. One construction interconnects only the pre- and post-transformation torso, arms and heads of the character. Such a doll lacks a lower body, and must be held by the body-half representing the character's persona not in use by the child. Consequently, such dolls can be used only as hand-held puppets, lacking realism.
The present invention is a doll capable of realistically portraying different characters or persona of a character, while overcoming the foregoing limitations and disadvantages. The doll has a body portion representing the upper body of at least two characters or persona to be portrayed. The upper body of each character or persona are interconnected and extend in opposite directions from each other. A removable support engages one end of the body portion, and represents the lower portion of the character or persona represented by the other end of the doll. The support both engages and conceals the body portion not in use. At the same time, the support gives the illusion of the lower portion of the unconcealed character or persona portrayed by the body portion in use. Thus the entire character or persona can be portrayed.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the support can be secured to and released from the upper body portion, to allow easy transformation of the doll between the two characters or persona.
In still another aspect of the invention, a second support is used to represent the lower portion of the second character or persona portrayed by the doll.
In a further aspect of the invention, one or more supports are used, each representing a vehicle, animal or other thing related to the doll character or persona portrayed.